ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 107 
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at the present time. So of Methuselah’s age. We cannot believe that the 
duration of human life changed suddenly from hundreds of years to three 
score years and ten. The change, if at all, was in the human measure. Dur- 
ing our present century, the average longevity of Great Britain has increased 
_nearly ten years. The true ‘“‘elixir of life’’ is a scientific knowledge of the 
limits of our being, and wisdom to use our powers so as to obtain their 
utmost capabilities. Wisdom is the best use of knowledge. 
This early Chinese era consisted of three dynasties, who, successively with 
their descendents, ruled the kingdom of China, whose dominion had not then 
spread into an empire, and the aggregate terms of their reigns must have 
extended over a long period of time. This period may represent the rule of 
early Asiatic aborigines, developed upon the soil of China. 
Chinese historians commence their second and more authentic era with the 
reign of a sovereign named Tai Ko Fokee, or Great King Stranger. 
He commenced his reign B. C. 3,588, and from this founder of their line of 
monarchs, they have preserved a national history and true chronological suc- 
cession of their rulers. His name seems to imply that he was a foreign con- 
queror, who occupied the country, and doubtless, at the time of his conquest, 
took no pains to preserve the records of superseded dynasties, which come 
to us only in the form of tradition. 
The pictorial representations of King Fokee which have come down to us, 
represent him with two small horns, similar to those associated with the rep- 
resentations of Moses, the Hebrew law-giver. He and his successor are said - 
to have introduced into China the hieroglyphic characters for picture writing, 
somewhat similar to those found in Central America, and from whence the 
ideograms now in use are conceded to have been derived. He taught his peo- 
ple the motion of heavenly bodies, the twelve celestial signs, and divided 
their time into years and months, besides bringing them a knowledge of many 
other useful arts and sciences. The sudden advent of so much new knowl- 
edge, brought by one man, indicates that he came from far away—from a 
country with which no previous communication had existed. As he intro- 
duced a new measure of time, we can but estimate the duration of eleven 
reigns which preceded him. . 
Probably the solar day was the earliest measure of time; then, the lunar 
month; and lastly, the solar year. The various words used in all languages, 
and interpreted to us years, meant, simply, the periods of time which at the 
moment constituted its measure. Thus, if Methuselah lived 969 periods of 
time when the lunar month was the accepted measure, he died at 74% years 
of age, which is not improbable. 
The great Chinese history of Tse-ma Chi-ang, written B. C. 122, and pur- 
porting to be an accurate transcript of all earlier existing histories, which it 
was desirable to consolidate and preserve; narrates events, chronologically, 
from the reign of Hoang-Ti, which commenced B. C. 2,697, when he was 
eleven years old; during his minority the kingdom was governed by wise 
and prudent counselors, who, it says, took great care of the young monarch, 
and educated him in all the useful arts and sciences then known. It 1s re- 
corded that during his reign physicians first learned to feel the pulse; the 
magnetic needle was first used, pointing to the south; and civilization greatly 
